


Our Roses

by Firadania



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Fluff, Gardening, M/M, rayvin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-03
Updated: 2013-09-03
Packaged: 2017-12-25 12:04:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/952863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firadania/pseuds/Firadania
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gavin works at a local garden centre, and a man called Ray is always asking him for advice about roses. Sometimes Gavin gets worried when he disappears, but he always comes back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Our Roses

He was tempted to call in sick to work today, as winter had started in and he was beginning to get a cold; it was one of the colds that he couldn’t shake off. 

But there usually weren’t too many people working at the centre at this time of year, it being close to the Christmas holidays and all, so he felt like he had to go in. 

The man pulled on one of his woollen jerseys and some pants, grabbing his cup of morning tea off the bench. Checking that it wasn’t snowing outside first, he finished his tea and grabbed his bag and keys before walking out the front door.

Since he didn’t own a car or a license, he walked his way down to the garden centre, which wasn’t so much of a big deal because it was only a couple of blocks away. Besides, he’d rather get a whiff of crisp November air than pine car freshener. 

No-one was really out on the Austin streets at this time of the morning, and those that were were on the road and not the pavement. A couple of coffee shops were opening, the pungent smell of bitter caffeine beginning to roll out the open doors. He didn’t drink coffee though, it was too… strong.

As he neared the garden centre, located in a large greenhouse with a fenced outer area, he saw that it was closed; the Brit sighed, realizing that the manager hadn’t shown up yet and that meant that he had to open it.

He pulled the spare keys out of his backpack, going around the side of the building and entering through the side door into a staff lounge. He turned off the alarms here and walked into the main greenhouse, smiling and breathing in the smell of fresh soil and vegetables. There were flowers as well, but not many grew in winter; he wondered why people were still so eager to buy them.

The man clipped his name tag onto his jersey, setting the front doors to open and carrying out the signs to the pavement outside. It was already getting colder, and he blew on his hands to heat them up.

Just then, his manager showed up, covered in layers of warm clothing and a scarf and beanie.

"Hey Gavin, thanks for setting up this morning!" the man said, nodding at him to go inside to the warm. "I was running late with some things at home."

"No problem, Joel." The Brit knew that he was a nice guy and he always meant well, so he didn’t complain. Joel just had a lot on his plate, that was all. "Anyone else coming in today?"

"Chris, Kathleen and Barbara said they would, Miles and Kerry said it’s a maybe. You know, you can take off time too, Gavin. I always see you here, even on weekend shifts." The man didn’t tell him that his best friend had gone off to the army and that his other friends were still in England, or that the people that he did hang out with had gone on Christmas holiday early; he didn’t like sitting around doing nothing, so he worked here.

"You wouldn’t be able to cope without me," Gavin joked. "Besides, I know that you always lose people around this time of year." Joel watched him knowingly, but nodded.

"Yeah. I get that. Well, I’ll get the checkouts sorted, you can see if all the plants are still alive and in the right places." His manager left to do his job, leaving Gavin to work on his odd jobs around the centre.

The other employees showed up eventually, a couple of hours later when customers were just starting to show up.

Gavin’s job was to keep a check on stock and answer any questions that people might have about gardening or plants. At times he got tired of it, but he got regular breaks.

He’d already helped a few elderly customers find their way around the greenhouse and was dozing out by some of the flowers on a bench, the perfume almost smothering him.

"Can you help me?" He jumped up from his seat, eyes flitting open while he replied,

"Yes, definitely. Sorry about that, slow morning." He was rambling, and the Brit closed his mouth purposefully. "What can I help you with, sir?"

"I was wondering if you had any winter roses here, I had trouble finding them on my own." 

"Ah, right, this way." He gestured for the man to follow him to another part of the store, looking back and down to his feet to make sure that he was following. "I’m sure that we just stocked a new Explorer series. What colour were you looking for?"

"A deep red, preferably." Gavin nodded to show that he understood, pointing to a row of shelves ahead.

"Alright, we may have what you’re looking for." He began investigating the plants and seed bags. "We have Henry Kelsey’s, which are a 6 foot shrub with bright red roses. Hmm, what else… Alexander MacKenzie’s, the same but they are generally thicker and have more petals. Winnipeg Park’s, these are my favourites; easy to take care of because of smaller shrubbery and they bloom in clusters of scarlet. Any of these sound like what you’re looking for?"

He turned back to his customer to see their reaction and hear what decision they had come to. But instead, they were staring at him, slightly slack-jawed, apparently in awe. He blushed under the stare.

"Uhm, sir?"

"Ray. You can call me Ray." The man held out a hand and they shook on it. The Brit felt awkward doing so, never really interacting with the customers so much.

"Gavin. Nice to meet you…?" he replied, pulling his hand away quickly and wiping away his sweat on his jeans. "Were you going to choose a shrub?"

"Sure, Winnipeg Park’s," he said like it was the simplest thing in the world, grinning while he said it. 

"Okay, the seed bags are right there, you should be fine from here on." Gavin was about to make his great escape when the man called out to him.

"Hey Gavin?" The Brit turned back. "It was a pleasure to meet you. Thank you." After that and a wave, he began to fast walk away, face practically on fire even if there was a bit of a smile curling the corner of his mouth.

Ray. Nice guy.

-

A couple of days passed, and Gavin was still wondering about the strange man who had come to the greenhouse and been awed by him. He was supposed to know everything about the plants in the store, so why did Ray find that surprising?

Under Joel’s duress, he had decided that in two weeks or so he would take a month off, go back to England, even. He might get around to some of that filming he’d been putting off.

He was thinking about the holiday while sitting in the outside area; it had warmed up especially well today, the sun peeking out of the clouds after a snowy morning. Gavin was wearing another woollen jersey, one of the many that he had in his closet at home, and it was a deep reddish colour. Of course, now it smelt like fertiliser because of an accident earlier, but it was keeping him warm.

"Having fun out here?" For the second time he jumped as someone sat beside him, and he frowned at them.

"You’ve really got to stop doing that," he pouted, crossing his arms while Ray chuckled.

"I like surprising you." He cleared his throat. "So, how’s the life of gardening?"

"Dull. I’m going on an early Christmas holiday soon, though." The man peeked over at Ray, who wasn’t smiling so much any more. "But that’s weeks away yet. I’ll still be working here for a while."

"You smell… different," Ray replied after a couple of minutes. "But your jersey’s nice."

"Thanks… Did you come here for something specific?" Gavin asked him. Ray nodded.

"Should I use fertiliser because it’s a new garden and new plants?" The Brit thought about it for a while.

"After planting, yes. The soil should become fertile while the plant’s still growing, and the plant’s roots will become accustomed to both soils. Of course, since it’s a new garden, you might already have fertile ground, you can’t really tell, I guess, but…" He started trailing off when Ray started to stare. "Do I make sense or am I just rambling?"

"You have a really nice voice, you know that?" Gavin felt like his face was going to be permanently blushed if this continued. "Hey look, now you match your jersey!" They began to laugh about it, quietly and then loudly. Some of the other people outside started smiling at this. "I hope that I’m not embarrassing you. I mean, I’m new to this whole-" He gestured in a cupped circle shape, like a globe. "I’m not just assuming that you-?"

"I am. I think," he replied, heart beating fast. "Maybe we can talk tomorrow, I’ll see you then." After saying this, he stood up and speedily began to walk to the staff lounge, away from Ray and the awkward conversation he really didn’t want to have.

-

Another week passed before Gavin saw Ray again. He’d felt bad for driving the man off, he hadn’t meant to. It was a difficult thing for him to talk about with strangers, or people close to being strangers. Still, he didn’t expect Ray to disappear for so long, and he wasn’t expecting it when the short Puerto Rican came rushing into the greenhouse shouting his name.

"GAVIN!" he yelled, looking around the room to spot him frozen like a deer in headlights in a corner of the store. "Gavin!" As he began running towards him, the Brit was unable to move from sheer shock and fright. "I thought that you’d left already!"

Ray embraced him, throwing his arms around Gavin and squeezing tightly so that he made a squeaky noise.

"W-what are you doing?" he whispered, trying to escape from the grip in vain. "C-can you let go of me, please?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry." Ray let go so that he could breathe. "I was worried that you’d left already."

"Left for where?" Gavin was honestly confused by what he was saying; where would he have gone?

"For England! I figured that, with your accent and mention of holiday, you’d be heading back to your home country as soon as you could. There were some things that I had to do before I came to see you but-"

"You’ve only known me for 2 week tops, and yet you were going to miss me?" Ray shrugged, not really agreeing to it.

"I like you, Gavin. I’d like to get to know you better. Is that possible?"

"No more rush hugs, then," he replied, smiling a bit. 

"Deal. Now come on, we’re getting you out of here."

"Where? What?" The man shook his head and held out his hand. Gavin looked at it for a while before taking it.

They walked out of the store, where the Brit stopped and stared. “That… you made that?” Ray nodded proudly.

"My roses weren’t exactly up to par, so I had a little help," he confessed. "But I made it for you, just because."

Gavin made up his mind that if he was ever going to like a man, it would have to be one that made a large rose wreath for him just because.

"These can be our roses, then."


End file.
